Scott Jennings on Trump Taking over a Thousand Questions from Press: ‘Hardly Dictatorial Behavior’

HINOJOSA: “But it‘s not even — we‘re not even talking about individual outlets. I think we‘re talking about individual reporters, too. When Trump doesn‘t like a question, he doesn‘t like a story in The New York Times, he doesn‘t like anything that someone says about him, he can ban those individuals. That‘s something a dictator would do. That is something that is scary, frankly, because he’s trying to — “
Jones: “But is it same as trying to be a dictator?”
HINOJOSA: “He‘s trying to — he‘s trying to filter the news, trying to filter the news to the American people. I mean, that is what‘s concerning.”
PHILLIP: “This is — this is the X post, the tweet post from Peter Baker, who is a longtime foreign correspondent. He covers the White House for The New York Times. He said, ‘Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of Putin‘s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access.’”
JENNINGS: “Okay, can we just address this dictator business? I‘m going to quote from some statistics — “
DUNCAN: “Which one, Zelenskyy?”
JENNINGS: “Our old friend — our old friend Chris Cillizza, who calculated that in the first month of the Trump Administration, the president took 1009 questions. Hardly dictatorial behavior. Same stat for Joe Biden: 141. And I would remind you all that in 2023, the Biden Administration revoked the hard passes of 442 journalists. And at the time, the White House Correspondents Association took ‘a non-committal stance.’ So if you‘re worried about transparency, Trump is being far more transparent than any recent administration.”
PHILLIP: “Scott, why were their press passes revoked?”
JENNINGS: “I don‘t know.”
PHILLIP: “As it because they didn‘t go to the White House frequently? Because that happens in every — “
JENNINGS: “They lost their access:”
PHILLIP: “That happens in every administration.”
JENNINGS: “They lost their access. 442 — “
AIDALA: “Besides, the Biden people never called on James Rosen from Newsmax. He’s a real, legitimate Reporter, never called on him.”
PHILLIP: “He was allowed in the White House.”
AIDALA: “The press room, yes.”